Question

ead the excerpt from "The Scarlet Ibis." There is within me (and with sadness I have watched it in others) a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love, much as our blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction, and at times I was mean to Doodle. One day I took him up to the barn loft and showed him his casket, telling him how we all had believed he would die. It was covered with a film of Paris green sprinkled to kill the rats, and screech owls had built a nest inside it. Doodle studied the mahogany box for a long time, then said, "It’s not mine." "It is," I said. "And before I’ll help you down from the loft, you’re going to have to touch it." What symbol is described in this excerpt, and what does it represent?

Answer 1

This question is missing the answer choices. I was able to find them online. They are the following:

What symbol is described in this excerpt, and what does it represent?

A. the owls, which symbolize knowledge and wisdom.

B. the nest, which symbolizes home and family.

C. the rats, which symbolize cruelty and sadness.

D. the casket, which symbolizes the loss of Doodle.

Answer:

The symbol and its representation is:

D. the casket, which symbolizes the loss of Doodle.

Explanation:

James Hurst was an American novelist born in North Carolina in 1922. He published the short story "The Scarlet Ibis" in 1960.

Doodle is just a little boy but he has an incredibly sad story. He was born with serious health problems, so no one ever thought he would live long. In the passage we are analyzing here, the narrator, who is Doodle's older brother, is showing Doodle his casket. A casket is an obvious representation of death, and quite a strong predictor of what is to come later in the story. Doodle does not accept the casket as his, but it seems that he hasn't got much of a choice. Everyone already expects him to die.